Music improves wellbeing and quality of life, research suggests

Oliver Sacks wrote that music has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly.

A new analysis shows that singing, playing or listening to music can improve wellbeing and quality of life.

Music may provide a clinically significant boost to mental health according to a review of 26 studies conducted across several countries.

There were seven studies that looked at the effect of music therapy, 10 that looked at the effect of listening to music, and eight that looked at singing.

The analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open shows that music interventions are linked to improvements in wellbeing.

The effects were the same whether participants sang, played or listened to music.

The benefit of music to mental quality of life was close to being related to improvements in mental health due to exercise and weight loss according to the authors of the meta-analysis.

Future research is needed to clarify optimal music interventions and doses for use in specific clinical and public health scenarios.

Kim Cunio, an associate professor and convener of musicology at the Australian National University, said that many of us know from personal experience how profound a music intervention can be.

The connection between our personal experiences and a growing body of data of peer-reviewed research makes the case for music as a frontline intervention in our health system.

We have spent thousands of hours listening to music, codifying it in our brain and responding to it, so we are experts in music. Something remarkable happens when we listen to music.

When I feel like things are hard, I turn to music. Sometimes that music is an echo of how I am feeling. Sometimes I need a different kind of music that can make me feel better.

This is the true wonder of music, that there is no rule as to what is best to listen to. We need to follow the heart.